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Closing

Cold call, warm call, hot call…what is it? Go with the easy ones first

Outreach occurs on an ominous note because we collapse outreach with cold calls…which many salespeople fear and despise…and consequently, aren’t very good at…so the cycle never gets broken and the perspective continues.
If you see the relevance and value of outreach but don’t have much experience with it, the fear and resistance are understandable. So, let’s start with the easy stuff…hot and warm calls.

Hot calls are those customers who are actively looking, and you happened to connect wit…

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Who you gonna call?

Do you have your customers and prospects in a CRM or accessible and organized format?
Are your contacts stored somewhere that you can get to easily?

If you aren’t using a CRM program, you can get by with putting your contacts in Outlook or in an Excel or Google spreadsheet. You probably have systems in your computer (or the company does) that you can use to get started, so ask before you take on building something that might already be in existence.

For trade showrooms, begin to organize your…

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Why wait?

As traffic begins to slow in both retail and trade showrooms and we look to satisfy our commitment to making goal NO MATTER WHAT…we find that relying solely on the door is not a good strategy for achievement.

Relying on the door is a waiting game. And it puts all the eggs in one basket… and it’s not a sturdy basket. It may seem easier to just wait and see what happens, right? But what if the traffic is insufficient to make your goal at your current performance levels? Then what? Can you affo…

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Organized for Appointments

The Greek poet Archilochus said: “We don’t rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training”. The same is true for our level of structure and organization.

If we are really intending to manage our actions in time and achieve our targeted outcomes by successfully making and executing appointments, we need to be structured to do that.

And that means to be organized by having appointments IN YOUR CALENDAR as one-hour placeholders, using the repeat function on yo…

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Intended Outcomes

My program, “Sell it or Schedule it”™, is called that because the ONLY outcomes of a selling interaction is to close the sale or to arrange another contact time…in order to close the sale. To either write it up today because the customer is far enough along in their buying process to be able to confidently decide…or they aren’t! In the case of the latter, an appointment will ‘forward’ or ‘advance’ the sale so that you can close it at the next contact.

Anything else isn’t an outcome, but a step …

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Equals (Product) Solution

If you are still reading this series, you have come to the summary of addition: Problem plus Priorities plus Process equals Solution.

The product solution that you create by asking questions in these three areas and combining the answers will produce a solution that will compel the customer to take action…now.

Presenting a solution that captures the essence of what matters most to the customer standing in front of you requires focus, attention, patience, and persistence. And the satisfacti…

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Process…plus….

Of the three key points, this one is most critical to know in order to direct the interaction to an outcome today – and the only outcomes that count are a sale or an appointment.

Every buyer is somewhere in their buying decision. Where they are and what they have done and what remains to be done will impact what they CAN do today. 

Surprisingly, this is the area least explored by most salespeople or considered critical in what outcome can be achieved today. And I assert that not knowing th…

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Prep for the Holidays

I am hopeful that your year has been strong and that your business has been consistently good each month.

And I am also hopeful that you prepared for HOW you would do business at the end of the year as the holidays approached.

One of the benefits of setting yearly goals (broken into quarters and months) is that you can anticipate and predict the cycles of traffic and buying highs and lows. You can manage how your business will be taken care of and your goals achieved during vacations and h…

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Part 20 of 20: HubSpot Sales Statistics…With Secret Sauce Added

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20.   An average company loses 10% of its customer base every year

Don’t be discouraged! This is just a lesson in prospecting and staying ahead of your sales pipeline. Stay active and continuously reach out to new prospects and past clients to keep your pipeline full and your team looking ahead.

Salespeople

Simply put, keep prospecting and don’t take it personally. If you lose more than 10%, you might want to explore further to discover why that is. However, if you ask for referrals, market cons…

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Part 19 of 20: HubSpot Sales Statistics…With Secret Sauce Added

customer retention19.    Retaining current customers is 6–7 cheaper than acquiring new ones

It’s not a new sales enablement statistic, but it’s just as true today as it was in the past. It’s cheaper to keep your current customers happy than to spend time finding new ones.

Salespeople

Is follow up a scheduled part of your weekly sales actions? Do you ask ‘What’s next?’ with each sales opportunity that closes? Like asking for referrals, staying connected with current clients is low hanging fruit (I dislike that phr…

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